I was playing GTA IV last night and I was doing a mission were you have to rob a bank. This character in the game named Derrick McReary kept on talking about something called The Troubles. He also kept on saying that he saw combat in Belfast.

Why the hell would the Irish do something so goddamn reckless. The British Army had to come in just to combat these guys. I can understand they wanted their own government but why would they do it in such a violent way?

Why the hell would the Irish do something so goddamn reckless. The British Army had to come in just to combat these guys. I can understand they wanted their own government but why would they do it in such a violent way?

Well read that huge wiki entry for more info. The problem was the nationalists wanted Northern Ireland to be separate from Britain and the Unionists wanted to be part of it.

The nationalists wanted it so badly they turned to violence. Politics make for crazy bedfellows! Northern Ireland had a vote in the mid 70s to leave the UK and join with the Republic or stay a part of the UK. The voted to stay by a large margin (possibly partly because of the violence caused by the nationalists who were mainly from the Republic of Ireland). So it really should be a dead issue, but troubles still continue to this day.

But if you ask a nationalist I'm sure you'll get a version in which the British are mainly held responsible for the troubles. Although 99.9% of us British could care less if Northern Ireland was part of the UK or not.